marjoleink’s posterous

Screenshot: Batch programming and Dia

My batch programs were getting more layers than I could comfortably hold in my head: I needed a picture.

So yesterday I installed Dia, open-source, SVG diagramming which not only runs on Linux but has a Windows version as well. Given that I've used (quite a few) diagramming applications before, I found it really easy to get into: Dia may not be as powerful as some but has really good usability.

It took all day to get my - intended- process fully flowcharted, so now I can go back to programming, positioning my edit window on top of Dia next to the diagram portion I need. Bliss.

1. Yes, this is Windows Vista. I hate it, but haven't had time yet to replace it with Windows XP plus some Linux.

2. Yes, I do need Windows for some things, though I spend as much of my development time in Linux as possible. In the middle of the migration process.

3. Yes, that is Notepad. I have a good selection of graphics software on this box now, but since it's meant as graphics processing box, I haven't looked at a decent programmer's editor for it yet. Need FOSS, multiple tabs, good automatic syntax highlighting at least. Suggestions, anyone? Leave a comment!

4. Questions? Leave a comment!

Hiking day (not) - Hoorn

No, this was not exactly a hiking day. Last Sunday we had a reunion of our trip through Central Asia - in Hoorn - and we made a walk through this old harbor town, with lots of beautiful 17th-century buildings. Only one fishing boat is left now; its three harbors are full with pleasure boats.

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JavaWoman

Hiking day - along the Beemsterpolder

Walking along the dyke on the northern edge of the Beemsterpolder, we encounter a special project: poetry along the dyke!
 
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JavaWoman

Hiking day - De Rijp

City hall and weighing station, 1630
 
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JavaWoman

Kölnisch Wasser - day three

It's partly cloudy when I get up, and after breakfast the lady at the hotel tells me the weather forecast is indeed cloudy but some rain every now and then - but not as bad as yesterday. Since my feet are still very sore I chance it and don't take my rain jacket along: every bit of weight off my feet will help.

My first target for today is around Heumarkt where yesterday I noticed a lot more of the weird blue water pipes I first noticed on day one. It's easy to get there: just one stop on the tram from Neumarkt. I potter around a lot in the neighborhood, trying to catch how weird the pipes look, going over and along buildings (sometimes right in front of windows), through streets, joining here and there, and finally ending up at the river. I suspect by now they're actually pumping ground water: one pipe sems to be coming up from the ground not far from a building site. Near the tram stop I get onto the grass to get near the pipes and momentarily lean against one: there's a deep rumbling and vibration in it: a lot of water being pumped through with considerable force.

Next I go to the riverside again, and along to the Rheinauer Hafen. Unlike the harbor in Deutz which is for freight, this is a harbor for pleasure boats, separated from the river by a long strip of land you can reach (as with the Deutzer Hafen) via a turning bridge. It's all good for a lot more pictures (finally some water hoses and taps as well). The Severinsbrücke crosses the Rhine right here, going right over the harbor and the strip of land as well. I have to get onto a building site (somewhat illegally) to get a picture from right under the bridge.

From there I take the bus back to the Heumarkt, just so to complete all forms of public transportation I am allowed to use on my WelcomeCard (and partly because my feet are sore, but it isn't very far). I have lunch at a very nice restaurant (12 Apostel) where there's supposed to be free WLAN - but the connection is dodgy and I don't succeed actually sending something from there - at least I can write a bit. Until now, it's been cloudy, but when I sit eating my delicious tomato soup the sun comes out - and it also starts to rain. I decide to have another go at the Aachener Weiher, just a few trams stops away from here maybe the sun will come out there, too.

Of course, when the tram stops at the Universitätsstrasse, it starts to rain in earnest, and the sun doesn't get a chance for a while. Still, a fresh look gets me some different pictures. A look at my map tells me behind here there's also a long stretch of water - a long pond? I decide to have a look, but the streetname already gives it away: the Clarenbachstrasse borders a stream which must be the Clarenbach (a Bach is a small stream, a brook); a bridge over it has a "danger" sign just like those at the Aachener Weiher, which suggests both were designed as a whole.

That's it for the day, I have about two hours left and still have a little shopping to do before picking up my luggage at the hotel and finding my train. I'm on my way back while I write this now, and will post it when back in Amsterdam. With a few typical pictures, as before.

           

Click here to download:

Koelnish_Wasser_-_Day_three.zip (30723 KB)

Kölnisch Wasser - day two

The day in short: free sunshine, free milk, free WLAN, free downpour!

I woke up - much to my surprise - with the sun shining right in my eyes! I thought it would be raining today, so I quickly had something from the (excellent!) breakfast buffet at my hotel, and hurried out to take advantage of the good weather (while it lasted!).

First a stop at the Woyton cafe to send last night's email. They advertised fresh milk straight from the farm, and that sounded really good to me. But when the guy who took my order wanted to look it up in the computerized cash register, he couldn't find it; after poking around a lot he gave up and said: "OK, so it costs nothing! It's on the house!" At that moment his colleague appeared and pointed out to him where to find the price. But he was a good sport and said "Too late now!" So I ended up having free milk with my free WLAN.

The Rhine ferry didn't go (does it ever? they have no business hours posted), so I crossed the river on foot via the Hohenzollern bridge that connects the two big stations Hauptbahnhof and Deutz Messe: the trains in the middle, and on either side is a foot/bike path. Walking across gives you great views of the Rhine.

Then a walk along the river side (more good views) up till what I'd found on the map but didn't know what it was: the Tanzbrunne. It looks like concerts (and dances) are organized there, and there's a platform in the middle above a circular pond. Lots more pictures there, and still the sun was shining!

I realized the wind wasn't blowing as hard as it did yesterday, so maybe the cable cars (Rhein-Seilbahn) would be going today? Worth a try. So on I walked along the riverside. A little before 10 I could see a little seat zooming along the cables (testing?) and a little later one cable car was going across. I soon found the end point and yes! they're going today! "Erst fahren, dann bezahlen" (hop on this side, pay on the other side). As I expected the views across the Rhine were spectacular. Also sweet: with my WelcomeCard I got a discount.

Next on my list: Media Park. A free extra as I got off the subway: nice fountains along the Kaiser Wilhelm Ring. Then on to the lake in front of the Media Park - also a great location (thanks, Vladimir!). I had a lot of fun there with reflections and different wave structures, and actually made two rounds around the lake, one each with each of my lenses. Unfortunately, while I was having lunch nearby, it started to rain.

By now my feet were hurting, but I wanted to have a look at the Deutzer Hafen. Easy enough to get there: one of the trams stops right next to the Drehbrücke: a turning bridge giving access to the harbor. The bridge is really nice, but you cannot actually get at the harbor. A bit disappointed, I decide to walk around it (one leg at least goes along the river: good for some nice views) but that turns out to be a really stupid decision: my feet are already hurting, it's a long way ... and the threatening rainclouds seem right behind me. Sure enough, just when I'm at the end of the harbor, hoping there will be a tram stop nearby (I can feel a blister growing under my right foot), the clouds catch up with me and very suddenly let loose: it pours so hard, I'm soaked within a minute, only just able to protect my camera from getting too wet. Luckily the tram stop really is nearby, and soon I'm back in my hotel and can change into dry clothes.

Time for a break, I doze a bit, wake up, find my blister has grown and really needs treatment. Then, while there's still a little light left, I hurry to the Aachener Weiher - an exactly square lake. I don't manage to get its "squareness" in a photo, but take some pictures anyway. I'm not quite happy with what I got, I may have to return here when there's a little sunshine.

Finally, I need to treat my blister again, before heading out for a delicious Indian dinner. All in all, a fun day, and quite productive! Some photos attached!

           

Click here to download:

Koelnisch_Wasser_-_day_2.zip (30155 KB)

Kölnisch Wasser - day one

Smooth train ride to Cologne, though we arrived 20 minutes late because of a signal problem between Duisburg and Düsseldorf.

After I got out in Deutz I asked a DB lady how to get a day ticket or even a three-day ticket for public transportation. She sent me to the DB ReiseZentrum office, where I had to wait in line, but was told that even though my ticket said Deutz I could just travel on to the Hauptbahnhof (the main station) and get a three-day ticket there: much cheaper than the single day tickets they sold there. Another train ride and another (much longer) line at another DB ReiseZentrum later I arrived at the KölnTourismus bureau where indeed I got a three-day WelcomeCard for €19, which also gives extra discounts on a number of things (while a single day ticket is €7.50, with no discounts): good deal.

The hotel turned out easy to find and located very conveniently quite near the Neumarkt which is very central and has a large number of tram and subway lines as well as busses, but away from the noise in a quiet side street. My room was free already so I could check in and leave some of my stuff there. Just a pity I could not get the free Wifi working with either my netbook or my phone.

Time to get started. The lady at the reception pointed me to a cafe nearby (Woyton) that has a free hotspot - and I needed lunch anyway. This worked, and I could post a few dents. Then on to my first target for today: the Zoo. That was a super tip by Vladimir: it was not only fun, there was also a lot of water so I walked around for hours an took loads of pictures. After that I wanted to cross the Rhine by means of the "Seilbahn" (cable cars) which starts right opposite the main Zoo entrance, as I expected it would afford beautiful views of the river. Alas, due to the stormy weather the service was stopped. (Quite likely it's going to be the same tomorrow.) I ended up walking around a lot more (some of it in the wrong direction: it seems my sense of direction is shot through lack of sleep), and then having a look at the Rhine - maybe I'll go back there tomorrow.

All in all, a great day, and a good start of my little project. It helped that the weather was unexpectedly nice, of course: tomorrow we'll have rain.

And by now, Wifi in my hotel room has also started working again! So I'll post a few photos, and then go out for dinner - and crash after that.

...more: Wifi worked, mailing didn't because the IP address here was in a black list. Trying now (4 September) from cafe Woyton...

           

Click here to download:

Koelnisch_Wasser_-_day_one.zip (30887 KB)

Heading out

We're riding out of Amsterdam CS; it's raining, as it probably is in Cologne!

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JavaWoman

Palm tree for @stav

(approximation of) - on the beach between Katwijk and Noordwijk.

Testing Focus Magic

Just back from my trip through Iran and Central Asia, I'm finding myself with a load of pictures - many of which were taken from a moving bus (there was little occasion to stop on some very long travel days). The result: some of those pictures would have been quite nice, were it not for some movement blur.
 
A great occasion to test Focus Magic which can - both as a stand-alone application and as a Photoshop-compatible plugin - deblur and tackle movement blur by using a deconvolution algorithm. Of course, if the blur is very bad, the image information just isn't there to work with, but if it isn't too bad, it should be able to improve an image.
 
I picked a "test" image (one I really, really wanted to improve), and set to work. Besides Focus magic, I tested two other programs as well: Picture Cooler (primarily a sharpening application, the deblurring is still experimental) and Meesoft Image Analyzer; the latter seemed more capable at deblurring, but for my purpose, both programs had a big disadvantage: they function as stand-alone programs only, while I needed to be able to work on a selection. Of course this doesn't say anything about the overall quality of these two programs - just that they're not very suitable for deblurring if you need to operate on an image selection.
 
On close inspection, I found there were various areas with different amounts of movement blur, and even different directions in my image. Consider a moving bus, and a stationary object along the road: I panned to get the object as best as possible in the middle of the image. You then have the movement of the bus with respect to different parts of the landscape (different distance result in different amounts of movement blur, and perspective adds to that); the road is uneven, so you get a bit of up-and-down movement as well; and finally there's the panning camera, itself moving relative to the landscape and the objects inside it. All the different directions and amounts of blur made it necessary to work with selections.
 
So, I loaded my "test" image in Paint Shop Pro (PSP), and worked with Focus Magic on a series of selections that had more-or-less similar movement blur. The effect on the main object (with my panning the "most stationary" bit) was stunning. In addition, I used PSP itself to actually add a little blur to the far background and the near foreground. Then I did a little bit of color enhancement to bring out the colors of the object (it was all in the  shadow), and finally I used some Helicon Filter retouching to get rid of some artifacts, by some selective blurring and a touch of selective sharpening.
 
The first two images show the pull picture: the original and the end result, both reduced in size to 640x480: just to give an impression. These are followed by three 100% crops of the same region: the original, the image edited with Focus Magic applied to some selections and some blurring to others, and finally the end result with some color enhancement and artifact removal.
 
Needless to say, I'm very happy with the results of Focus Magic, and will register it today!

(Oh, BTW - the image was taken along the Tajik - Afghan border (from the Tajik side) where there are a few areas that still have landmines; you're quite safe as long as you stay on the road, though!)

         

Click here to download:

Testing_Focus_Magic.zip (1442 KB)